November 5th, 1984

The Byers Shed

"Do you know what March 22nd is?" Mom asked as she took a seat on the chair in front of Will. Staying silent, Will's chest heaved up and down as he tried to catch his breath after screaming for so long.

"It's your birthday." She answered for him as a sorrowful look cast over his eyes. "When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that?"

Silence.

"It was 120 colors. And all your friends, they got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors."

Silence.

"And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. It was your spaceship. A rainbow ship is what you called it. And you must have used every color in the box."

The faint shadow of a smile grows on his lips.

"I took that with me to Melvald's and I put it up and I told everyone who came in, "My son drew this." And you were so embarrassed. But I was so proud."

Silence.

"I was so, so proud." She said again though Will seemed to only stare at her in a daze.

"Do you remember when dad left?" I spoke up, causing Wills eyes to dart in my direction.

"We stayed up all night building Castle Byers. And we built it just like you drew it." I continued, pulling Jonathan with me as I made my way in front of my little brother.

"And it took so long because you were so bad at hammering. You'd miss the nail every time." Jonathan stated causing the two of us to chuckle slightly at the memory.

"And then it started raining, but we stayed out there anyway. We all got sick for like a week after that." Jonathan continued as the smile on Will's lips slowly started to grow.

"We just had to finish it, didn't we?" I asked with a smile as he moved his eyes between the two of us, his eyes becoming glassy.

"Do you remember the first day that we met?" Mike asked from his place by the wall. "It was the first day of kindergarten. I knew nobody." He spoke softly as a tear fell down his cheek.

"I had no friends and I just felt so alone and so scared, but I saw you on the swings, and you were alone too. You were just swinging by yourself."

Still quiet, Will's bottom lip began to quiver at Mike's words.

"And I just walked up to you and I asked. I asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. You said yes and it was the best thing I've ever done."

Will's breathing got heavy as continued to stare sadly at Mike. "Will, baby. If you're in there, just please, please talk to us." Mom spoke, causing his eyes to snap back down to hers.

"Please, honey, please, can you do that for me?" She asked as Will slowly started to cry, his lip now quivered violently.

"Please. I love you so much." She whispered to him, and almost as quickly as he started to show emotion, it all drained away.

"Let me go." He whispered, staring right through us again.

Letting out a sigh, a tear fell down my cheek as he continued to stay silent, looking at us as if we were nothing to him.

A light tapping noise could be heard in the room, but it was quickly stopped as Hop pressed a needle into Will's arm, causing him to slowly shut his eyes before his body fell completely limp.

"Inside." Hopper grumbled before opening the door and quickly making his way into the house.

Following behind Hopper, we made our way into the kitchen as he grabbed a pen and paper. "What happened?" Dustin asked as we all gathered around the table as Hop wrote down a few dots and a line.

"He's talking to us. Just not in words, in code." He said as he started to turn the dots into letters.

"What is that?" Steve asked, "Morse code." We all said at the same time causing him to move back slightly. "Okay.." He whispered lightly, grabbing my hand in the process with a smile playing on his lips.

"H-E-R-E" He spelled out for us, "Here." The party stated as they reread the paper. "Will's still in there. He's talking to us."

"So what do we do now?" I asked looking over at Hopper as he seemed to be thinking about the question as well. "Reminding him of his memories gives him some source of control."

"So we keep doing that?" Jonathan asked, and Hopper nodded in response. "And then in here, I'll send the code to you through the walkie and you can decode it."

"I think I have a book on that." Dustin stated as he ran out of the room to grab his bag from the living room. "And then hopefully, he can give us something to work with from there." Hopper finished as Dustin came back holding a thick book about codes.

"I'll be right back." Jonathan said as he parted away from us and ran into his room. "What's he doing?" Dustin asked as we all watched Jonathan disappear.

"No idea." I stated before he came running back into the room with his boom box in hand. "Let's do this."

~~~

Standing back in the dimly lit shed, we each decide to take turns reminding Will of who he was with the memories we had each made with him.

First went Jonathan, playing the mixtape that he had made Will to get him into "good" music, mainly 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?' While he talked about the first time he had played it for Will, to help cover up the sound of our parents arguing, and to help take his mind off of the horrible situation.

Next was Mike, talking about how Will had saved the Party when they all seemed to be corned on only their first rounds of Dungeons and Dragons.

And then mom, who could barely speak through her tears as she described how kind of soul he has always been. The first instance being when he was little and decided to give the little girl in the sandbox his toy because she was crying, knowing we wouldn't have the money to replace it. He did it because he didn't want her to be sad anymore.

Letting out a deep breath that I hadn't even realized I was holding, I slowly walked towards the seat that mom had now stood from.

Quickly brushing away my tears, I smiled towards Will while he still seemed to hold the same sad expression from Mom's memory.

"Do you remember when you got into drawing?" I asked, lightly tugging at my fingers in order to stay calm.

"You had practically just learned how to walk and talk so you couldn't seem to leave my side. You were like my little shadow for so long." I spoke gently as I tried to meet his eyes but his expression gave me so much pain.

"One day, I was hiding in my room with my art supplies and you had pushed the door open and just watched me through the little crack you made while I painted."

A small smile started to play on his lips but it seemed to twitch back and forth.

"I have no idea how long you had been standing there but once I noticed you, you slowly walked towards me before pointing at the canvas, you were so confused with what it was."

"You couldn't hold the paintbrush and stroke so I just let you use your fingers until mom got mad at how much of a mess I had let you make. But I didn't want to stop you, all the colors and shapes seemed to make your smile bigger than anything else I had ever seen you do."

"So, after the argument with mom and washing all the dried paint off your hands and arms, I gave you my sketchbook and some colored pencils and you just blew me away."

His eyes watered slightly as he seemed to lean in while I spoke.

"You drew flowers. Not big, cartoonish flowers. But small and delicate ones, over and over again, each in a different color and with different patterns. I still have it pinned on the wall above my desk. Do you remember what you'd always ask me whenever you would finish a drawing?"

Silence.

"Every time, and I mean every time you would draw. You would come up to me once you finished and you would ask me if I liked it. And I would always tell you the same thing. That it doesn't matter what I think as long as you loved what you did."

A tear fell down his cheek as a light tapping was heard through the room once again.

*Ring! Ring!*

Jumping at the sudden sound, Will's head snapped towards the door. "Shit." Hopper said as Will's eyes stayed trained on the door in thought.

The phone stopped ringing, causing us to hold our breaths in anticipation.

*Ring! Ring!*

Wills eyes slowly started to roll back as the ringing finally stopped again, his eyes twitching back and forth behind his lids.

"No, no. Hey, can you hear me?" I asked quickly, lightly grabbing his arms as his breathing began to get heavier and heavier.

"It knows. It knows where we are." Hopper stated, pulling me away from Will as mom quickly made her way over with the needle in hand, injecting him and instantly putting him to sleep.

Throwing open the door, we made our way outside just in time to hear the screech of the Demo-Dogs break through the quiet. "We gotta go." Hopper stated as he, Jonathan, and mom went back into the shed to cut Will free of his restraints.

"Come on, let's go." I said to Mike as Jonathan picked up Will from his chair and ran towards the porch.

Once we made it inside, we found the kitchen empty except for the codebook and two note pads, one with the code and the other saying

'CLOSE GATE'.

"Living room." Mike stated, pulling me away from the table and into the living room where Max, Lucas, and Dustin leaned over the couch to peer out the window.

Mike quickly joined them while Steve made his way over to me with his bat in hand. "Are you okay?" He asked, pulling me closer to him as my mom, Jonathan and Hopper came into the room.

"Away from the window!" Hopper yelled, pulling all of our attention to him and the two guns he held in his hands.

"Do you know how to use this?" He asked holding it up towards Jonathan. "What?" Jonathan asked, obviously not wanting to take the gun.

"Can you use this?" Hopper stated again raising his tone. "I can." Nancy stated stepping up as Hopper threw the rifle in her direction.

Turning their weapons towards the door, Nancy and Hopper cocked their guns while Steve raised his bat in the air, pushing me behind him lightly with his arm.

"Where are they?" Nancy asked as she aimed towards the door, the screeching sound getting closer towards us, its movement causing the wood of the porch to creak.

"What are they doing?" I questioned as the noise suddenly moved towards the other side of the house, making the branches of the overgrown bush sway.

And then just as suddenly as the noise had started, it quietly died off, before a pained groan could be heard by the creature.

Next was the crashing sound of the Demo-Dogs body coming through the window causing all of us to quickly jump to the other side of the room, though the thing just seemed to lay there limp.

"Holy shit." Dustin whispered as we all started to slowly make our way towards the thing, I fearfully held onto Steve's arm. "Is it dead?" Max asked while Hopper pushed the tip of his rifle against the Demo-Dogs body.

Convinced that the Demo-Dog was really dead, the sound of the door creaking was the next thing to grab our attention.

Jumping back into action, Hopper, Nancy, and Steve raised their weapons as the lock of the door quietly clicked before slowly being pushed open by a mysterious force.